Sometimes on most websites the home page and the creative design get the most attention. And the focus is not always focused on lead generation. However that is your website’s primary purpose.  Usually where to put everything and make it easy to find, or maybe just making sure everything is covered takes precedence.  In a lot of cases even more so where a content management system (CMS) is used to update your website. Because you may even forget to remember about your sub pages (second and third level pages in your navigation).

The convenience of using CMS systems and the speed of publishing updates means you can post new content and have it look like the rest of your website. But at the same time it could also mean that you never take the time to look at the new content pages you are creating and how they fit into the rest of your website. Much less your lead generation program.

Here are a few points to keep in mind when reviewing these sub-pages:

• Is your contact information easily available on all home pages? Home Page, Blog Post, About Us, special promotion pages, etc.

• When trying to generate leads you need to have different click through paths for your different website visitors (Ex. existing customers vs. someone who just read about your company in the newspaper). Everyone digests information differently and in different cycles such as ready to buy or people who are looking for credibility and trust before they consider purchasing. Remember we talked about effective web persuasion in an early post.

• Use keywords on deeper sub-pages, since you never know which pages search engines will favor. This point is important enough to repeat the first tip. Consider if the sub-page is the first page the visitor sees. Do they have an easy way to contact sales or customer service. Using a keyword in the first paragraph will also help search engines weight that page higher.

• Do you have links from other sites? If yes then that will help with your “link authority” and help your search engine rankings which could lead to higher qualified leads that come from relevant industry websites. Or that match keywords that your buyers ask about.

• Keep content fresh and updated. Put another way new content generally shows up higher in the search engine search results. Since recency is a factor in determining a content’s relevancy.

Capturing new leads is an ongoing process to ensure your sales pipeline is filling with new prospects. Sometimes improving existing pages can help too by perhaps looking at keywords that helped find those deeper and in some cases hidden gems. Using your web analytics tools you might realize that the majority of your search engine website visitors are being directed to one landing page or blog post topic. If that is the case, and these keywords are key to your business. You may want to highlight this page content on the home page. Or at the very least mention these same keywords on your home page.

Photo credit: pneumatic_transport

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Being aware of the decision process is crucial to persuading consumers and encouraging buying behaviors.

Back in 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis developed a new framework for describing consumers interests through four stages called A.I.D.A.

Awareness/Attention
Interested
Desire/Decision
Action
S (Permanent Satisfaction - key to repeat sales)

In his book, Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Web Sites (New Riders Press, 2002), Andrew Chak applies the AIDAS model above to mapping website visitors.
Using this principle he recommends designing web pages and landing pages for four main user types.

Browsers – May not know what they are looking for; what they want; but do have an unmet need

Evaluators – Are aware of their options;knowing comparable options;looking for detailed information

Transactors - Have already decided to buy, and need to quickly go through the ordering process

Customers – Have completed an order. To ensure there is a repeat sale their satisfaction levels need to remain high to order again. (Important Tip: Continue communicating with previous buyers/customers)

Also keep in mind your sales cycle and applicable time frames. An example would be buying a computer, which could take time to final make the order after deciding what to buy and from where. Using the internet websites are also key elements in driving impulse sales that are short in duration or have low dollar value. An example would be buying flowers online for valentines, etc. The difference is you will probably not put a lot of thought into it spanning several weeks of deciding.

Key Questions to ask yourself when designing your  work flow:

1. Do you have what I want?
2. Why should I get it from you?

Remember sometimes your customers will purchase on the first visit. Others may not, they may return later to continue their evaluation stage before pulling the trigger and ordering. Therefore you must provide clear paths for people to follow: “Order Now” vs. “Compare us to our competition”.

How many times have you visited a website and tried to look for credibility such as return, and shipping policies, secure online order pages, 1-800 numbers, live chat, etc. These facilitate both your new customer ordering now and someone just sizing up your company to see if your website looks legitimate.

Remember: Without having a consumers’ attention (Stage 1) and interest (Stage 2) they will not get to desire to act (Stage 3).

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